An unlicensed driver accused of crashing into a family’s vehicle in Mountain View at high speeds while trying to evade police, killing two children who were riding in the backseat of the other car, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to murder and other charges.
Angel Velasquez Salgado, 20, is charged in Friday’s crash on an Interstate 805 off-ramp that killed two boys, identified by family members as 8-year-old Malikai and 4-year-old Mason Orozco-Romero.
The boys’ mother was also riding in the car and remains hospitalized for injuries sustained in the crash. The car’s driver — a family friend who was also the boys’ nanny — was also injured.
Velasquez Salgado faces up to 39 years and four months to life in state prison if convicted of the two murder counts, as well as charges of gross vehicular manslaughter, hit and run, felony evading and driving without a license.
Deputy District Attorney Jessica Coto said the defendant sped away from police around 6:15 p.m., prompting a chase that spanned about 5 miles on surface streets and two freeways. Coto said he reached speeds of around 100 mph during the pursuit.
At the 43rd Street off-ramp, he rear-ended the victims’ car, sending it off an embankment and into a tree, where it “burst into flames,” the prosecutor said.
He then allegedly ran from the car and took off some of his clothes “in order to conceal his identity,” she alleged. He was arrested a few blocks away, hiding in a nearby residential neighborhood, according to Coto.
In addition to the fatal crash, Velasquez Salgado also rear-ended an elderly woman’s car earlier during the pursuit, causing her injuries, Coto said.
He was initially jailed on $1 million bail, but a judge agreed to hold him without bail at the prosecution’s request.
A GoFundMe page created by the boys’ godmother states that their father died about a year ago and their mother had been dealing with ongoing medical issues.
“Everyone who knows these kids know no matter what they were going through they always carried a beautiful smile on their face,” the page reads. “This tragedy isn’t fair.”
